BALADI NEWS
Turkish Defense Ministry said early Wednesday there is no further need at this stage for it to conduct a new operation in northern Syria outside its present operation area, a Turkish newspaper writes.
"Turkey will never let a terror corridor be established to the south of its borders and our resolute fight against terrorism will continue," the Defense Ministry said in a written statement according to the newspaper.
It was referring to Operation Peace Spring, which was launched on Oct. 9 to eliminate the People's Protection Units (YPG) from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River in order to secure Turkey's borders and to aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.
The statement underlined that at the end of a 120-hour pause, the U.S. reported that the withdrawal of the YPG from a designated safe zone region was completed.
On Oct. 17, a U.S. delegation led by Vice President Mike Pence paid a working visit to the Turkish capital, Ankara, where they met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discussed Turkey's operation.
Following the meeting, the two sides reached a 13-point agreement on northeastern Syria. As part of the deal, Turkey paused its push east of the Euphrates for 120 hours to allow the withdrawal of the YPG from the planned safe zone. The pause ended Tuesday night.
"We have shown due sensitivity in fulfilling all the obligations we agreed to," the statement said.
It also stressed that within the scope of an agreement reached Tuesday between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia's coastal resort city of Sochi, joint activities with Russia will start from Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Turkey and Russia reached a 10-point agreement on Syria during the "historic" meeting between the two presidents just hours before the pause was set to expire.
According to the deal, starting at 12 noon (0900GMT) on Oct. 23, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will enter the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border outside the area of Operation Peace Spring to facilitate the removal of YPG/PKK terrorists and their weapons to a location 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Turkey’s border in northern Syria, which should be finalized in 150 hours.
Source: Yeni Safak.